A theory of 'Navigating Cultural Spaces'

Indian immigrant women are a growing minority within the multicultural spaces of New Zealand society; yet despite the long history of Indian settlers in New Zealand, the experiences of Indian women settling in a new and unfamiliar environment have been largely overlooked. International migration is a complex process involving multiple changes in physical, economic, political, social and cultural aspects of context; within which a range of transitions relating to place and occupation unfold. The significance of this work is that it reveals how the everyday occupations of Indian immigrant women are constantly modified through their interaction and interpretations of the environment, thus allowing them to move between and within the multicultural spaces of New Zealand society. This gives rise to the theory of Navigating Cultural Spaces which frames settlement as an ongoing and dynamic process. The analysis provides new perspectives on settlement processes that occur within the context of immigration and should be especially useful to scholars and policy makers in the fields of sociology, occupational science and immigration studies.